Fungal effectors play an important role in plant immunity. The Magnaporthe oryzae effector PWL2 plays a significant role in rice blast disease caused by this fungus. However, the function of PWL2 in rice immunity is not fully understood. In this study, transgenic rice lines overexpressing PWL2 showed resistance to rice blast. Subcellular localization showed that PWL2-GFP fusion protein is localized on the plasma membrane and cytoplasm. Salicylic acid (SA) induces rice resistance to M. oryzae. Notably, the expression of the NPR1 gene exhibited a rhythmic pattern during the early stages of M. oryzae infection in the transgenic rice lines. However, during later stages of infection, transgenic plants showed reduced levels of the NPR1, WRKY45, PR1a and PR10a genes, along with decreased H₂O₂ accumulation, while SA levels remained unchanged. Transcriptome analysis revealed that SA treatment induced the expression of the ARGONAUTE11 (AGO11) gene in rice. Furthermore, during the later infection stage in the transgenic rice lines, the expression levels of both AGO11 and PWL2 genes increased. Intriguingly, PWL2-derived small interfering RNAs (siRNA) were detected in these transgenic rice lines. It suggests that both the SA signaling pathway and PWL2-derived siRNAs function in rice resistance to blast disease caused by M. oryzae.

The establishment of dorsoventral polarity is a critical step in leaf morphogenesis, enabling the transition from radial primordia to flattened laminae. The MYB domain transcription factor ASYMMETRIC LEAVES1 (AS1) plays a central role in this process by regulating leaf polarity and developmental transitions, primarily through the repression of Class I KNOX genes. Here, four AS1 paralogs were identified in soybean (Glycine max), two of which showed collinearity with Arabidopsis thaliana and Medicago truncatula. The AS1 proteins of soybean and Arabidopsis exhibit high conservation, whereas the four GmAS1 genes in soybean display different tissue-specific expression patterns. Strikingly, each GmAS1 gene was able to fully rescue the defective phenotype of the Arabidopsis as1 mutant, indicating that GmAS1 genes are functionally conserved in leaf polarity regulation. Promoter analysis further indicated that GmAS1 genes are enriched in cis-acting elements related to light response, hormone regulation, development, and stress response, suggesting potential subfunctionalization among these paralogs. In conclusion, these findings demonstrate that GmAS1 genes are evolutionarily conserved in function but potentially diversified in regulation, providing new insights into their role in leaf polarity and stress adaptation.